Efficient individual protection of the employees from air pollution requires high quality respirators, their correct selection and use. International Organization for Standardization (ISO) prepared standards that can become the basis for the development of similar standards in Russia. However, direct copying of the texts from ISO documents to GOST can reduce the efficiency of the employee protection.
When using personal respiratory protection equipment, exhaled air with a high content of carbon dioxide fills the mask and is then inhaled again. ISO standard, which substantiates the requirements for the permissible concentration of CO2 in the inhaled air, ignores the available information on CO2 toxicity and Russian hygiene standards. This may lead to the certification and issuance of personal respiratory protective equipment to the employees, in the use of which the concentration of carbon dioxide on inhalation will exceed the maximum allowable concentration.
In order for the efficiency of the personal respiratory protection equipment to correspond to the degree of air pollution, the protection coefficient was applied and measured. Significant differences between the efficiency of personal respiratory protection equipment in real and laboratory conditions are considered. The proposed ISO method for determining efficiency may lead to the use of respiratory protective equipment that is known to be ineffective.
Using personal respiratory protection equipment it is required to change gas mask filters in a timely manner. When assessing their condition, ISO standard forbids relying on the subjective reaction of the employee feelings. At the same time, a more reliable method is ignored - introduction of special sensors. Recommendations are given to avoid all of these shortcomings.
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